The Orioles couldn’t take care of some necessary business today.

They lost a series against an inferior team. And in gut-wrenching fashion.

There isn’t much flexing done from fourth place, but the Orioles held a three-run lead in the eighth inning against an opponent with the worst record in the American League, and a one-run lead heading to the bottom of the 10th.

Keegan Akin was on the verge of stranding the automatic runner on third base, but he couldn’t hold onto Jeremiah Jackson’s underhand flip while covering the bag on Nolan Schanuel’s routine grounder with two outs. The ball rolled into foul territory, Schanuel raced to third base, and he scored on Logan O’Hoppe’s check-swing 15-foot nubber up the third base line to give the Angels a 7-6 walk-off win.

Catcher Samuel Basallo fielded the ball and Schanuel ran around him to cross the plate. Basallo reached for Schanuel but didn’t come close to making the tag.

The Orioles lost two of three games in the series and went 4-5 on the West Coast trip to leave their record at 38-44 going into the off-day and a homestand against the Nationals and White Sox.

The result especially stings after the Orioles claimed  the series at Dodger Stadium. The Orioles can’t keep taking steps backward if they want to contend.

They came within an out of winning their first road trip of the season.

The Orioles overcame an out at the plate in the 10th to lead 6-5 on Pete Alonso’s two-out single to right field that scored Taylor Ward. Akin might have been a step slow getting to first base or he slowed up as a crowd gathered, but he could have recorded the out if the ball didn’t bounce off his glove. Alonso broke for the ball, tried to get to the bag and was a helpless spectator.

Akin was the seventh reliever used today.

Basallo hit a pair of two-run homers off Angels starter José Soriano to give the Orioles a 5-2 lead in the third inning. The first ball traveled 434 feet to right-center field at 106.9 mph off the bat.

Per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, the only other players 21 years and 315 days old or younger since 1900 to hit multiple homers as catchers were Francisco Alvarez in 2023, Joe Mauer in 2004, Dale Murphy in 1977,  Butch Wynegar in 1976, Bill Freehan in 1963, Hank Ruszkowski in 1947 and Shanty Hogan in 1927.

Trey Gibson surrendered a two-out, two-run homer to Jorge Soler in the first inning but was scoreless in the next three. His fastball reached 97.6 mph in the fourth, when he struck out the first two batters.

A rested bullpen and the off-day prompted manager Craig Albernez to remove Gibson after 66 pitches, 42 for strikes. The Angels put two runners on base in the fifth against Grant Wolfram and Tyler Wells, but Christian Moore struck out.

Gibson has notched 20 strikeouts, including five today, in his last three starts over 13 1/3 innings since June 13 after registering two or fewer in each of his first four major league games. He’s among 10 pitchers in club history with seven or more strikeouts in at least two of his first six career major league appearances, joining Akin, Brian Matusz, Tim Phoebus, Steve Johnson, Dean Kremer, Rick Krivda, Mike Mussina, John Parrish and Grayson Rodriguez.

The rotation posted a 2.98 ERA in nine games on the trip.

Wells tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings with a hit, walk and four strikeouts. He hasn’t allowed a run in six appearances this month over 8 2/3 innings, with four hits, two walks and 13 strikeouts.

Yennier Cano left two runners on base for Rico Garcia with two outs in the seventh, and a two-pitch fly ball kept the lead intact.

Garcia returned for the eighth and surrendered a leadoff double to Donovan Walton and two-out RBI single to pinch-hitter Vaughn Grissom. Garcia has been scored upon in five of his last eight appearances.

Andrew Kittredge inherited a two-on, two-out jam, walked Denzer Guzman to load the bases and surrendered a game-tying two-run single to Wade Meckler on a ground ball into right field. All three runs were charged to Garcia, leaving his ERA at 2.70.

Ryan Helsley retired the side in order in the ninth, striking out two, after giving up four earned runs and five total in his first two appearances since his reinstatement from the injured list.

The Orioles are 21-8 against the Angels since 2022, including 10-5 in Anaheim. They had won or tied nine consecutive series to come within one of their longest undefeated streak versus the Angels from 1965-66.

They hadn’t lost a series in Anaheim since a three-game sweep July 2-4, 2021.

Blaze Alexander returned to the lineup after leaving Monday’s game with a bruised right knee and went 0-for-3 with a walk. He also committed a fielding error.

Jackson Holliday was out of the lineup for the fourth consecutive game with some groin tightness, but Albernaz told the media that the young second baseman looks like he’s “in a good spot.” To prove it, Holliday pinch-hit in the ninth inning … and struck out.

“I think it’s one of those things where balancing where Jackson’s at and he’s trending in the right direction, and also with the off day coming tomorrow, being able to kind of make sure he’s fully healthy of where he’s at,” Albernaz said. “Yesterday was a great test, today’s a good test. So just like anything, he’ll be day-to-day, see how he feels when he comes out of this.”

No one in the visiting clubhouse is feeling good. The last two grounder from Akin were clocked at 67 mph and 18.9 mph. Soft contact and a hard-luck result.

A long flight home just got a whole lot longer.